24th July 1897....Amelia Earhart,the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean is born.She and her engineer disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean Jul 1937 on an around the world flight attempt.

24th July 1926....Two Lufthansa Junkers G.24s leave Berlin to make a round-trip to Beijing.They will return on September 26th.

24th July 1941....First flight of the Douglas DB-7 B attack bomber,better known to some as the Douglas A-20 Havoc,or Boston.They were operated worldwide with almost 7500 built.

24th July 1943....(RAF) use “Window”code name for metal foil dropped to confuse enemy radar,for the first time,beginning Operation Gomorrah on Hamburg with 791 aircraft.

24th July 1946....Bernard Lynch was involved in the first airborne test of a British ejection seat.Lynch ejected from a Gloster Meteor Mk III at 320 mph.He volunteered to test the system.

24th July 1961....Deliveries of the McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo to the Royal Canadian Air Force commence.It was an all-weather interceptor aircraft that served with the RCAF until 1987.

24th July 1969....Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.They are picked up by helicopters from USS Hornet.President Richard Nixon was aboard to personally welcome the astronauts.

24th July 2009....The Italian Civil Aviation Authority suspends the operating licence of MyAir due to financial problems and service failures.The airline had three wet leased Airbus A320`s.

25th July 1909....Louis Bleriot becomes the first pilot to cross the English Channel.He makes the crossing in his Blériot Type XI from Les Barraques to Northfall Meadow (near Dover Castle) in 37 min.

25th July 1909....Van den Schkrouff makes the first flight in Russia in a Voisin biplane at Odessa.

25th July 1915....Cpt Lanoe Hawker of the RFC wins first Victoria Cross for aerial combat,over France.He shot down 3 enemy aircraft in succession,after an intial victory over Passchendaele.He was killed in a dogfight with the famous German flying ace Manfred von Richthofen on 23 November 1916.

25th July 1923....The first Canadian built amphibian,the Vickers Viking IV,was flown from the St. Lawrence at Montreal.A full-size replica built for the film The People That Time Forgot (starring Patrick Wayne and Doug McClure) is displayed at Brooklands Museum in Surrey.

25th July 1939....First flight of the Avro 679 Manchester,a twin-engine medium bomber.It was the forerunner of the vastly more successful four-engined Avro Lancaster.200 + 2 prototypes were built.

25th July 1962....The US Army forms its first armed helicopter company,using UH-1 Hueys.A utility military helicopter powered by a single turboshaft engine with two-blade main and tail rotors.

25th July 1984....Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk,around the Salyut 7 space station for over 3 1/2 hours.She must have had trouble hanging out the laundry. :-)

25th July 2000....Air France Flight 4590 Concorde crashes during takeoff from Paris,France after it ran over debris on the runway during takeoff,blowing a tyre and puncturing a fuel tank.

25th July 2008.... Qantas Flight 30,a Boeing 747-438 en route from Hong Kong to Melbourne,performs an emergency descent and lands in Manila after a hull penetration results in rapid decompression.

26th July 1910....Capt G.W.P.Dawes becomes the first British Army officer to be awarded an aviator’s certificate in England,when he qualifies for certificate no.17 on a Humber Monoplane at Wolverhampton.

27th July 1947....First flight of the Bristol Type 171 Sycamore,an early British helicopter.Capable of seating up to three passengers,it was often used as a transport for both passengers and cargo.

27th July 1949....First flight of the de Havilland DH 106 Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner.It was later developed into the specialised maritime patrol variant,the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod.

27th July 1955....El Al Flight 402,a Lockheed L-049 Constellation,strays over Bulgarian territory on its way from Vienna to Tel Aviv,is shot down by two Bulgarian fighter Mig-15`s,killing all on board.

27th July 1972....First flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle.A US twin-engine,all-weather tactical fighter designed to gain and maintain air supremacy in all aspects of aerial combat.

28th July 1933.... Dr. Albert Forsythe and Charles Alfred “Chief” Anderson land at Atlantic City to complete the first return flight to the West Coast by African-American pilots.

28th July 1934....Nelly Diener,Europe’s first air stewardess is killed with 9 passengers and flightcrew when Swissair Curtiss AT-32C Condor II aircraft crashed in Germany while flying through a thunderstorm.

28th July 1935....First flight of the Boeing B-17(prototype Model 299/XB-17)a four-engine heavy bomber developed into the Flying Fortress.As of May 2015,10 aircraft remain airworthy,none flew in combat.

28th July 1945....A B-25 Mitchell bomber,piloted in thick fog over New York City,crashed into the Empire State Building.The accident did not compromise the building's structural integrity,14 people died.

28th July 1950....The first scheduled passenger service flown by a gas-turbine powered airliner (turboprop) is British European Airway’s (British European Airways) Vickers V. 630 Viscount.

28th July 1982....The first McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet is delivered to the Canadian Forces Air Command.The underside of the CF-18 features a painted "false canopy" to confuse in a dogfight.Pic below.

29th July 1937....First flight of the Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra,a civil passenger and cargo aircraft.Developed by a team led by Don Palmer,it was a scaled-up version of the Model 10 Electra.

29th July 1950....A British European Airways Vickers Viscount makes the first turboprop-powered passenger flight.The flight was between Northolt and Le Bourget Airport with 14 passengers.

29th July 1952....A USAF RB-45 Tornado makes the first non-stop crossing of the Pacific by jet.It flew from Alaska to Japan in 9 hrs 50 mins,winning the MacKay Trophy for the crews achievement.

29th July 1954....First flight of the Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris,a French four-seat jet trainer and liaison aircraft.Main operators of the type were the French Military and Argentine Airforce.

29th July 1959....The first airbridge in the U. S. is installed at the International Airport in San Francisco.Designed to protect passengers from the weather when they board or leave aircraft.

29th July 1959....QANTAS introduces the Boeing 707 on its Sydney-San Francisco route,the first transpacific service flown by jet.

29th July 1963....First flight of the Tupolev Tu-134 "Crusty",a twin-engined, narrow-body,a jet airliner.The model has seen long-term service with some 42 countries in civil and military versions.

29th July 1966....Laker Airlines commenced commercial operations from its London Gatwick Airport base with two former (BOAC) Bristol Britannia 102 series turboprops.

29th July 1971....American and United airlines take delivery of the first two production Douglas DC-10 jetliners,and American puts its new DC-10 in regular service just eight days later.

29th July 1985....First flight of the Kawasaki T-4,a Japanese subsonic intermediate jet trainer,used by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.It is used by the JASDF's Blue Impulse aerobatic team.

29th July 1985....The eighth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger,and 19th shuttle flight overall,lifts off from Cape Canaveral for mission STS-51-F.Five minutes and 45 seconds into its ascent,main engine number one shuts down due to a malfunctioning high temperature sensor,forcing the crew to abort its originally planned orbit.

29th July 1996....First flight of the Mitsubishi MH 2000,a 7/12 seat light utility helicopter.Low levels of interest in the aircraft forced Mitsubishi to halt sales of MH2000 in September 2004.

30th July 1910....First flight of the Bristol Boxkite,was the first aircraft produced by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company (later known as the Bristol Aeroplane Company).A pusher biplane based on the successful Farman III.

30th July 1914....Norwegian pilot Tryggve Gran makes the first crossing of the North Sea by airplane,flying his Bleriot from Cruden Bay in Scotland to Revtangen in Norway.

30th July 1921....Swiss pilot,Francois Durafour in a Caudron G-3,made the first landing and take-off on Mont-Blanc,at an altitude of 4,000 meters.

30th July 1923....First flight of the de Havilland DH.50,a large single-engined biplane transport.17 were built by de Havilland,21 were licence-built in Australia, Belgium and Czechoslovakia.

30th July 1924....Japanese airmen, Yukichi Goto and his flight engineer Minezo Yonezawo,return to Osaka after completing the first flight around Japan.They cover 2,727 miles.

30th July 1935....First “Blind” carrier landing.USN Lt Frank Akers flew a Berliner-Joyce OJ-2 from San Diego to USS Langley at sea and landed on instruments (under a hood),for which feat he was awarded a DFC.

30th July 1954....First flight of the Grumman F11F/F-11 Tiger,a supersonic,single-seat carrier-based USN fighter.It was used by the Blue Angels flight team from 1957–1969,200 were built.

30th July 1958....First flight of the de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou,a specialized cargo aircraft with short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability.It was the first DHC design powered by two engines.

30th July 1959....First flight of the Northrop F-5A,a supersonic light fighter.Being smaller and simpler than contemporaries it cost less to both buy and operate,making it a popular export.

30th July 1971....Apollo 15 Mission – David Scott and James Irwin on Lunar module,Falcon.land with first Lunar Rover on the moon.The mission landed near Hadley rille,in an area called Palus Putredinus.

30th July 2008....First flight of the Piper PA-47 PiperJet,a single-engined very light jet,it was decided to redesign the aircraft into the PiperJet Altaire.The project was cancelled Oct 2011.

30th July 2011....NATO aircraft bomb three satellite dishes in Tripoli in an attempt to put Libyan state television,off the air,but the channel continues to broadcast.Jeremy Kyle must be popular :-).

30th July 1954....First flight of the Grumman F11F/F-11 Tiger,a supersonic,single-seat carrier-based USN fighter.It was used by the Blue Angels flight team from 1957–1969,200 were built.

I hadn't realised the Blue Angels used the Tigers for so long. The Navy retired them from carriers in 1961 but the Angels must have liked the handling.

Tiger used the J65 engine which was a license-built & modified AW Sapphire, which the British largely ignored but the Yanks liked; they also used it in the B-57, F-84F, FJ-3/4 and early A-4s. Over 10,000 J65s were built alongside 20,000+ J57s.

There was a J79-engined Super Tiger that was very close to winning deals in Japan and West Germany until Lockheed offered its infamous 'incentives'.

31st July 1901....German meteorologists Berson and Süring climb to 10,800 m in a free balloon.

31st July 1941....First flight of the Lockheed Ventura,a twin engine medium bomber.It was larger,heavier,and used more powerful engines than the Hudson it was developed from.Some served as maritime patrol.

31st July 1948....President Harry Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.

31st July 1951....First flight of the SNCASE SE.3120 Alouette,a utility helicopter that did not enter production.Despite impressive performance,the Alouette proved to be difficult to maintain.

31st July 1956....In a high-speed flight,prototype Folland Gnat,G-39-2,suffers tailplane flutter which breaks away.Test pilot bails out safely,becoming first person to use the Folland/Saab ejection seat.

31st July 1957....The Distant Early Warning Line,a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet bombers approaching North America,went into operation.

31st July 1964....Country music star Jim Reeves and his manager die in the crash of a Beechcraft Debonair.Reeves flew into a violent storm,it is belived he stalled the aircraft after becoming disorientated.

31st July 1972....After 41 years in operation,Northeast Airlines completes its final day of service before being merged into Delta Air Lines the following day.

31st July 1991....The United States Senate passes an amendment to a military spending bill,that would remove the ban that prevents women from flying combat aircraft.

31st July 2012....Due to confusion among air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington,Virginia,two US Airways commuter jets take off into the path of a third US Airways commuter jet flying in the opposite direction and cleared to land on the same runway.